The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for pilot-aided channel estimation for orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) wireless communication systems. In particular, it concerns pilot-aided channel estimation techniques employing Fourier transforms and filtering at the receiver.
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a potential technique to transmit high-bit-rate data over indoor and outdoor wireless communication systems. Channel parameter estimation is an important technique to further improve data transmission performance. There are two different types of channel parameter estimators: decision-directed and pilot-symbol-aided.
Decision-directed parameter estimators have been used in OFDM systems for coherent detection, co-channel interference suppression and transmitter diversity. For systems that are noise limited or with little co-channel interference, coherent demodulation with estimated channel parameters can be used instead of differential demodulation, and can achieve a 2.5-3.0 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain. Moreover, for systems with receiver diversity, maximal ratio diversity combining(MR-DC), which is equivalent to minimum mean-square error diversity combining(MMSE-DC) in the absence of co-channel interference, can be achieved directly using the estimated channel parameters. For systems with co-channel interference, the coefficients for the MMSE-DC can be calculated from the estimated channel parameters and the instantaneous correlation of the signals from each receiver. For OFDM systems with transmitter diversity using space-time codes, channel estimation can provide the necessary information required for the decoding of the space-time codes.
Pilot-symbol-aided parameter estimation is another type of estimation approach. Pilot-symbol-aided channel estimation for single carrier systems with fading channels has been analyzed. Both 1-dimensional (1-D), double 1-D, and 2-dimensional (2-D) filtering algorithms have been proposed for pilot-symbol-aided parameter estimation for OFDM systems in terrestrial audio and television broadcasting, fixed and mobile wireless communications. However, the filtering algorithms for pilot-symbol-aided parameter estimation require channel statistics, such as, the delay profile and the Doppler frequency, which are usually unknown in wireless environments. Prior art patents have suggested time or frequency domain correlation using pilot symbols.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,015 to Higashi et al. is directed to pseudo-pilot-symbol aided channel estimation in a single carrier system. At the receiver, the channel transfer function associated with each pseudo-pilot symbol is estimated and a time-domain interpolation is carried out to determine the remaining channel transfer functions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,083 to Wright discloses the use of a periodically transmitted pair of pilot symbols spaced apart by a fixed difference in a single-carrier system. The pilot symbols are used to synchronize the transmitter and receiver and are also used in channel etimation. Only the pair of pilot symbols are processed by the channel estimator. Specifically, the channel estimator compares the current channel-impaired received pilot symbols with their expected amplitude and phase, and the average amplitude and phase distortion is used to estimate the effects of the channel. Average estimates obtained over multiple such periods are then interpolated or otherwise filtered to generate symbol-specific amplitude and phase adjustments to apply to the channel-impaired data symbols. However, this technique does not address the issue of OFDM communication and does not account for the simultaneous effect of Doppler and multipathing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,376 to Castelain et al. is directed to pilot-aided channel parameter estimation in an OFDM system. Pilot symbols are broadcast using higher power than the remaining symbols in a data stream. At the receiver, the noisy channel parameters are subject to an inverse DFT, weighting and thresholding so as to focus on the pilot symbols, and the result is then subjected to a DFT. While Castelain ""376 provides frequency domain interpolation, it does not perform this in the time-domain. Therefore, this technique does not provide channel estimates which are robust to both Doppler and delay profiles due to multipathing.
The present invention is directed to realizing robust parameter estimation for a channel in a synchronized OFDM communication system which is robust to both Doppler and multipathing. At the transmitter, pilot symbols are selectively inserted in predetermined frequency bins (tones) of each of a number of OFDM blocks, and a plurality of such OFDM blocks are sequentially broadcast. At a receiver antenna, the plurality of OFDM blocks are processed, and the resulting signal used to form a noisy two-dimensional channel estimate, one dimension corresponding to a frequency index of the OFDM tones within each block and a second dimension corresponding to a time index of each OFDM block. The noisy two-dimensional channel estimate is then subject to two 2-D Fourier transforms, and a diamond-shaped filter between them, thereby producing a noise-reduced channel estimate.
An additional facet of the present invention is that it may be adapted for use in mobile or diversity receivers having a plurality of receiving antennas. In such case, signals received at the various antennas are used to form a single channel estimate which is then used to combine the signals to arrive at an optimum estimate of the transmitted signal.